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BP (BP) Ascends While Market Falls: Some Facts to Note

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BP (BP - Free Report) closed the latest trading day at $29.56, indicating a +1.62% change from the previous session's end. The stock's change was more than the S&P 500's daily loss of 0.43%. On the other hand, the Dow registered a loss of 0.07%, and the technology-centric Nasdaq decreased by 0.9%.

Shares of the oil and gas company witnessed a gain of 0.34% over the previous month, beating the performance of the Oils-Energy sector with its loss of 8.37% and the S&P 500's loss of 1.98%.

The upcoming earnings release of BP will be of great interest to investors. It is anticipated that the company will report an EPS of $0.65, marking a 39.25% fall compared to the same quarter of the previous year. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $57.53 billion, up 9.4% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $3.51 per share and revenue of $204.07 billion. These totals would mark changes of -26.57% and -4.21%, respectively, from last year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for BP. These recent revisions tend to reflect the evolving nature of short-term business trends. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the company's business outlook.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

The Zacks Rank system, which varies between #1 (Strong Buy) and #5 (Strong Sell), carries an impressive track record of exceeding expectations, confirmed by external audits, with stocks at #1 delivering an average annual return of +25% since 1988. The Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has moved 1.44% lower within the past month. BP is currently a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell).

Looking at valuation, BP is presently trading at a Forward P/E ratio of 8.28. For comparison, its industry has an average Forward P/E of 7.78, which means BP is trading at a premium to the group.

We can also see that BP currently has a PEG ratio of 2.07. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. By the end of yesterday's trading, the Oil and Gas - Integrated - International industry had an average PEG ratio of 2.07.

The Oil and Gas - Integrated - International industry is part of the Oils-Energy sector. At present, this industry carries a Zacks Industry Rank of 152, placing it within the bottom 40% of over 250 industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our individual industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Ensure to harness Zacks.com to stay updated with all these stock-shifting metrics, among others, in the next trading sessions.


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